


north star

by fiveofswords



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Selkies, a sealskin adventure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:53:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29769588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveofswords/pseuds/fiveofswords
Summary: [ Placed after Indigo's wonderful Sealskin]Just two seals finding chaos and mayhem in the sea.
Relationships: Leo Manfred/Gavin Reed
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10





	north star

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Indig0](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indig0/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Sealskin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29153511) by [Indig0](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indig0/pseuds/Indig0). 



“And then, CHOMP!” the old sailor said loudly, trying to be heard over the wind and the rain beating the rundown inn “The thing bit my leg right off!”

“No way!” Leo said, his eyes opening wide in wonder “how did you get away?”

The old sailor leaned back on his seat taking a drag on his pipe, “I’m afraid that I cannot tell you, I suppose I passed out from shock, next thing I knew I woke up in one of Rose’s bedrooms”

“My son found him on the beach,” the innkeeper added “You couldn’t have been there more than a few minutes, Hank, or you would have bled to death. I keep telling him he must have dreamt the whole thing”

“Does this look imaginary to you, Rose” Hank said lifting the wooden piece that now took on the functions of his left leg

“Of course not, neither were the weeks we had to grapple with you while you recovered, but no deep sea monster could have chopped your leg off when Adam must have found you only a few minutes after your injury-”

“I know what I saw” Hank said with a calm nod “Certainly know what took my leg off, even if I don’t know how I made it out”

“It makes for a thrilling story, nonetheless” Rose conceded as she picked up some dishes and went to the kitchen

Hank watched her leave and then leaned in towards Leo “Want to know what I think got me out, kid?” said Hank conspiratorially

Leo nodded slowly leaning forward in reply, Gavin watched the whole thing but was much more interested in his dinner. Leo was too much of a gullible dumbass, but there was no harm on him having some fun with the delusions of a musty old nut.

“Haven’t told Rose or Adam, they wouldn’t believe it, but I’m pretty damn sure a seal got me out –”

“A s-s-seal” Leo stuttered, Gavin stopped chewing to hear better, the old sailor nodded

“It was an odd one too, had blue markings or somethin’, may have been scars I was too out of it to really tell and it was too dark, maybe it was even a selkie, wouldn’t that be something –”

“Seal or selkie, they don’t go that deep” Gavin said wryly starting on his dinner again

“Well, this one did” Hank said a puff of smoke drifting out of his nose “I don’t know why it even bothered-”

“I’m glad it did!’ Leo interrupted, it made the sailor smile, they had taken a shine to each other in the few days Gavin and Leo had been staying at the inn.

The old sailor liked to tell stories to an appreciative audience which was hard to find, and Leo loved to eat up tales about sea monsters, and mermaids and weird lights in the sea wondering if maybe sometime they’d see one themselves, the more ridiculous the better.

“Shame I lost my watch though”

“And your leg…”

“Well, you see, this thing does the job,” Hank said knocking on it “but my son gave me that watch, and he’s not around anymore to give me another.” He paused only for a moment, “You boys going to stay around long?”

“Only until the storm front is over” Leo said

“Smart”

“If the damn thing doesn’t carry this place with it” Gavin added, as the wind howled through the empty inn

“Place is sturdier than it looks… and sounds, you could do much worse than Rose’s, if nothing else her food really sticks to your ribs”

+

“Hey, hey, Gavin, are you asleep? Gavin… Gavin…”

Gavin did not reply, he’d just been managing to doze off in the small, uncomfortable bed, made smaller because Leo would always sprawl all over it, not that Gavin minded, usually, except that due to the small size of this one he’d already fallen more than once during the previous nights.

“Gavin,” Leo said, a bit louder “Gavin!” he repeated opening his eyelid with his fingers

“What the fuck is the matter with you?” Gavin gave up swatting his hand away, he was not getting out of this one, not that he ever did.

“Do you think what Hank said was true?” Leo asked, leaning on his chest

“No.”

“Come on! Aren’t you curious, don’t you want to know if the sea monster is real? It would be so cool!”

“If it were real wouldn’t you know? Don’t they teach you that at… Selkie school or something”

“Not really, mom taught me about currents and hunting and to never go too deep into the abyss, because there are weird things in there,“

“So don’t,”

Leo sighed “If we go check it out, maybe we could find Hank’s watch…”

Gavin huffed “That’s what this is about? You want to go fetch for that old crank?”

“He’s cool!” Leo rebuked, “And if there’s no sea monster there’s no reason not to go and check, yeah?”

“Fucking waste of time, he’s probably just making it up in the first place” Gavin said finally

Leo huffed moodily in defeat. Silence at last …

“Phck, fine!” Gavin groaned after a moment “When the storm passes we can go take a look, is not like we have anything better to do”

“Cool!” Leo said, giving Gavin a kiss and nuzzling up to his neck.

+

When the worst of the storm receded they walked along the rocky shore feeling the salty wind on their faces. Gavin drew his seal skin cloak closer to him, something that he found himself doing often when in his human form; they spent most of the time as seals anyway, except if they were caught by a particularly bad storm, or if they felt like eating something more than fish for a change.

Leo put up the hood of his spotted grey cloak, a corner of it conspicuously missing, before jumping into the waves, Gavin following close behind. They swam in a flurry of bubbles, faster and more loosely as they warmed up to their seal shape. Gavin was much more coordinated than he’d been at the start although never graceful. He could easily follow Leo’s complicated zig zags, and twirls when they played tag, and hunt as smoothly as if he’d always known how, it beat fishing in his old rickety boat.

The cloudy day didn’t allow for much light even near the surface, and the water became darker as they swam deeper and deeper

“It must be around here, right?” Leo asked

Gavin shrugged “Your guess is as good as mine” probably better since Leo had actually been listening to the stories “Keep close, don’t you go following some bioluminescent octopus or some shit”

“That only happened once!”

“Yeah, and it took me a whole fucking day to find you, dumdum. We don’t know what may be living around here”

“Like the sea monster?” Leo asked, his brown eyes growing huge

“Sure, or like orcas and weird deep sea sharks”

“Right, right” Leo said floating a bit closer to Gavin straining his eyes to try to look into the dark

“Let’s go, the faster you get tired of this shit the better”

The dark water felt oppressing to tell the truth and even though Leo knew the upper parts of the abyss because he’d gone there back when he’d been searching for jellyfish, he’d never ventured quite this deep, he could barely see Gavin and he kept turning to make sure he didn’t lose him, and sometimes he’d catch a glimpse of some sea deep fish that gave him the creeps.

This was really stupid actually, even though he believed every word Hank had said, Leo was really just guessing at more or less the location where the sailor’s small house boat had sunk in, and really his watch could be anywhere, even if they found the spot the current could have taken it away… but Hank had looked so sad when he’d said it and Leo really liked the old man; he felt a bit jealous of Hank’s son, even though feeling jealous of someone that wasn’t even alive anymore felt a bit shitty, Leo couldn’t help wondering what would be like to have a dad that cared about you that much. Leo blew out some bubbles out of his nose and nodded to himself, he was going to find that watch, or at least give it a fair try. 

Not losing Gavin, of course. “Gavin?”

“Here, dumdum”

“Cool!”

Time was different underwater, harder to quantify, Leo guessed quite a long time had passed since he was starting to get hungry when Gavin called out to him

“Shit, come look at this!”

Gavin pointed with his flipper, it took a moment for Leo’s eyes to adjust and see it, amid the rocks there was a small house boat, just like the one Hank had described, they cautiously swam closer to it

“Told you he was saying the truth!”

“At least part of it”

Leo went into the cabin of the small boat, nothing of interest there, broken things and among them a collection of tubeworms, anemones and sponges making their home there, Leo didn’t have any intention of disturbing them who knows what new ugly thing with lots of teeth could be hiding there.

“Leo, get out of there” Gavin called, tension in his voice

“What is it?”

“Shh” Gavin hushed him as Leo swam to join him “There’s something there”

Leo tried to strain his eyes again; he couldn’t see anything through the dark water, but he could feel a change in the current, something was circling them, something bigger than they were.

“Maybe it's time to go, yeah?” Leo said

“Yup”

They swam as one as fast as they could, but not fast enough, in the black water so close to Leo he could actually see them, there were pale bonny human-like hands with long, crooked yellowed nails closing on them, only they were too big, almost as big as they were. The ghostly hand took hold of Gavin’s tail and pulled him into the dark. Leo turned right back, swimming so hard he could feel every single muscle in his flippers straining.

“Get away, stupid!” Gavin shouted at him, uselessly trying to wriggle out of the thing’s grasp

“As if, asshole!”

Leo reached the thing’s wrist and bit furiously into it, he wasn’t good in a fight as a human, but as a seal at the very least he could count on his pointy, sharp teeth, the skin of the thing tasted rotten, and as Leo bit it another two arms emerged from the dark, along with a face, all rotting flesh and sharp long teeth. The thing shrieked, swatting at Leo and letting go of Gavin, but they found themselves trapped, stone behind them, the dark under, and the thing just above. Calling it a mermaid would be generous but maybe the descriptor that best applied; a rotting humanoid with four arms and a fish tail that moved weirdly since it was almost sectioned like that of a lobster, it’s decaying flesh was full of barnacles, it swam circling them at first, then grabbed on to the stone, in a way that made Leo feel sick to his stomach.

“I just peed myself” Leo confessed, because he was about to die

“That’s so fucking gross, Leo” Gavin said, but he scooted closer

The four armed creature scuttled towards them, it poked at Leo with one of its yellowed nails

“What is it doing?” Leo whispered

“Seeing if you are fat enough” Gavin whispered back

“I’m not,” Leo said to the creature, unsure if it could understand him “I’m scrawny and bonny and have eaten more jellyfish than I should, I’m not a healthy snack;” the thing poked at Gavin “Gavin isn’t either even if he is fatter,” Leo hurried to say “Sometimes he tastes nasty, like a chimney where someone spilled old coffee”

“Hey!”

“It’s the truth!” Leo said “Like, I don’t mind it though, you know, it’s alright –“

“Shit, I cannot believe those are the last words I’m going to hear you say”

“Sorry…”

“Leo, Leo Manfred?” A somewhat familiar voice called from above

“Maybe?” Leo replied weakly, unsure if confessing to his identity would help them get out of this one or entirely the opposite

A big sea lion swam down to them, the huge mermaid creature seemed curious still but no longer aggressive

“Luther?” Leo said breathlessly

“Who the fuck?” Gavin asked

“He was Zlatko’s assistant for a while,” Leo explained

Gavin bared his teeth,

“Chill, he was always nice to me”

“We have talked about that before” Gavin said snarling at the sea lion “creeps band up with creeps”

“Luther is cool” Leo said, then lowered his voice to a hurried whisper “At least he seems to be cool with, you know, so shut it!”

“Yeah, I’ll shut it when he feeds us to it”

“Shhh” Leo said

“You Shhh” Gavin argued back

“Shhhhhhhh”

“SHHHHHHHHH”

“That’s fine Lana, they are not food” Luther said to the creature ignoring the bickering of the two seals “He’s a friend, not food” he repeated in his calm low voice, the big four armed creature seemed slightly put off, but it only huffed and obediently sank into the dark abyss below

“Luther,” Leo said, “Yeah, super nice to see you again and all, but… what the fuck is that?”

“Zlatko called her one of his most successful projects”

“Jeez,”

“Figures, told you he was a fucking creep,” Gavin said then turned to Luther, still baring his teeth slightly but not as much as before “it almost ate us!”

“Well, she needs to hunt just like any of us” Luther replied

“And anything is fair game?” Gavin barked,

“It is, for something of her size” Luther replied calmly “She can’t survive outside the abyss, and she knows me and… the others”

“There are others?” Leo said alarmed

“I’m afraid so, none as big or… as gone… as her” Luther was saying when something swam up to them from the dark, something smaller this time, about their own size, but what it was was much harder to decide. It was as if someone had taken an octopus and a human and tried to fuse them together, but they had melted more than they wished to, twisted human limbs and equally twisted and ill fitting tentacles were all over it, it’s almost shapeless face had anemones feeding where it’s eyes should be

“Everything alright, Luther?” It said in a very soft voice

“Nothing to worry about” he replied “you can go back to sleep, Lya”

“Just checking…” the thing said sleepily, sinking softly into the dark from where she’d come

“Some of them went…” Luther continued “Well, they wanted to find Zlatko”

“And they did, didn’t they…” Leo said

“Told you the fucker had it coming”

“Say, Luther” Leo said, trying to shake off what he’d just seen, eager to finish this and go back to the surface “Have you seen a watch, her, Lana was it, she ate the leg of one of my human friends”

“Oh, I’m so sorry” Luther said politely

“No worries,” Leo replied offhandedly “but he lost his watch and I really wanted to get it for him”

Luther thought for a moment, then he grinned “I actually think I know who has it”

+

They followed the sea lion up and up and up to Leo and Gavin’s relief, where there wasn’t as much pressure and you could see anything that was coming at you from pretty far away.

“It’s here” Luther said, when they reached a rock formation. Leo swam to follow, but Gavin stopped him

“We don’t know if he’s doing something creepy in there like that other nut”

“Hmm –“

Luther chuckled, “That’s fair, you can wait here” he said affably swimming towards the rocks, Leo could feel Gavin’s tension, then they saw a small half breed and a little pup coming out of the caves to greet him. The little half breed rested her forehead against Luther’s as a greeting, while the little pup swam excitedly in circles around him.

“Luther, Luther!” the little pup said “Kara and I found so many crabs today you should have seen!”

“Is that so,” he said with a smile

“Told you he was cool” Leo said to Gavin as he felt him relaxing next to him.

The little family disappeared into the cave system, and a few moments later Luther was back, the little pup trailing behind him and next to him another half-breed, deep grey with black spots

“I like your coat” the little pup chirped at Gavin when the group reached them “I like how it’s two different colors”

“Alice!” Luther chided her fondly

“But it’s nice!” the pup said with a little nod

“Thanks?” Gavin said, as Leo let out a little laugh

“I think it’s nice too” Leo told the little pup

“This is Connor,” Luther introduced the other half-breed

“Is this what you are looking for” the grey half breed said

Leo realized he didn’t know what he was looking for beyond a watch, but being lucky for once, when he turned it over there it was, Hank Anderson, engraved on the back of the silver watch

“This is it!” Leo said excitedly

“I.. I didn’t mean to keep it, I just couldn’t find your human friend again, I got him to the beach but he was bleeding so badly I turned into a human to look for help, but when I came back he wasn’t there, and I couldn’t find him, is he… alright?”

“We can take you to him if you want”

“Leo!” Gavin said loudly, bumping against him

“What!” Leo said “It's not like it’s a bother, we are going there anyway!”

“No we aren’t, this prick stole it, he can go give it back”

“No way, we almost died for it!”

Gavin groaned in defeat

+

Hank sat in the docks trying to fish some more, he’d already had a pretty good catch for the day but a few more wouldn’t hurt especially as winter was drawing closer, he could already taste the garlic butter fish Rose would make for dinner. Those two kids had moved on though, and Hank was sorry to see them go, at least one of them, Rose and Adam were far too skeptic an audience, and there were few travelers that ventured this far up north at this time of the year.

He sunk his hand in his coat pocket only to touch the small rum bottle he kept there like it was an amulet. He had stopped drinking to oblivion, but he was still drinking more than he should, and smoking, Cole did hate when he smoked. Hank sighed, and left the rum bottle where it was, a comforting weight in his pocket telling him he could drink whenever he liked.

There was some movement in the water, and the head of a seal bobbed up, then back under the surface emerging closer to where he was.

“Oh, no, no, no” Hank said to it “No fish for you here, go make puppy eyes to someone else”

The seal went under the surface again only to reappear right in front of him

“Didn’t you hear, business is closed” Hank said, but there was something in the eager look of the seal that reminded him of that kid, Leo. The seal barked bobbing up and under the surface yet again, rocketing up and throwing something at him

“What the hell is this” Hank almost laughed “where did you learn that, you are ready for the circus that’s what you are” he reached for whatever the seal had thrown at him and froze, a silver pocket watch just like –, he turned it around only to read his name on it. The seal barked at him again.

“You, you didn’t have to, kid” Hank said to him, the seal barked excitedly “Thank you, so much, you don’t even know” he said reaching to scratch the seal’s head. “You fine, though? That was something really messed up down there”

Leo leaned against Hank’s palm before sinking and coming up again

“Here, want a fish?” Hank said, getting the biggest one he’d caught that day, throwing it at the seal, at a distance the head of a far uglier one popped up

“Here, have another” Hank said throwing a second fish into the water “For your douchebag boyfriend, be careful and don’t be strangers, you hear!” Hank laughed as the seal splashed water on him with his tail before sinking into the water, the douchebaggy one following suit.

Hank took his watch and chained it securely to his vest with a smile

“Hank!” Rose called out for him, walking down the dock with a young man beside her “This is our new guest, Connor” she said with a smile as they reached him, “he wanted to know where he can find good fishing spots, would you mind showing him”

“Not at all,” The old sailor said standing up, beating sand off his coat with his hands, not even noticing when his small bottle of rum fell quietly into the water.

+

Leo and Gavin curled up in a rocky shore enjoying the cloudy night and the serene lapping of the waves; they had set on finding someplace better, but to Leo, as long as they were together that’s what made all kind of places be the best, even rooms in windy inns or small caves, or beaches with annoying seagulls shitting all over the place, it was never lonely or cold if Gavin was with him.

“Gavin?” Leo said, half asleep

“Hmm”

“I’m very glad you didn’t go into the backroom with Zlatko, you could have ended up… like that” Leo said scooting closer to him

“I’m not a complete moron” Gavin said, “Glad he didn’t get his creepo hands on you either” he added after a while, to which Leo mumbled an unintelligible sleepy reply.

“Dumbass...” Gavin said

He looked at Leo for a moment before settling down to sleep, thinking of how the dumbass had braved the creepy sea monster for him, what a fucking idiot. Gavin couldn’t see the stars tonight, but he didn’t really need them to find his way, his north star was, stinking of fish and starting to snore noisily, just beside him.


End file.
